A winter visit between two neighbours has ended in sad news. Puz and Officer Reed arrive beside a quiet tennis court, where two lines of footprints are still clear in the snow. Before long, Puz begins to doubt the host’s account of the evening.
A short winter visit
John and Carter lived in neighbouring cottages beside the town tennis court. A short footpath through the court grounds linked their doors; a longer route went around by the main road. John was a broad, heavy man, while Carter was much slighter.
Fresh snow had covered the grounds during the afternoon. It stopped before John set out for Carter’s cottage that evening. A neighbour saw John leave with nothing in his hands and no bag on his back. John wore his usual tall winter boots.
The following morning, a neighbour found that John had died at home and called for help. A doctor and the police attended. Officer Reed asked Puz to help check John’s last visit; what had happened during the night still needed to be established.
Carter’s account
Carter told Reed that John had come over for a chat. “We argued about an old debt,” he admitted. “Then he put on his boots and went home. I stayed here for the rest of the evening.”
“Did he take anything heavy with him when he left?” Puz asked. “A bag, a box, anything like that?”
“Nothing,” Carter replied. “No bag, no parcel. He went back on his own, just as he had come.”
John’s winter boots were now at his own house. The soles had broad ridges, with a small nick across one heel. Carter’s own boots had a different pattern.
The path through the snow
Puz and Reed kept off the snowy footpath along the far edge of the court while examining it. There were two separate lines of prints: one from John’s door towards Carter’s, and one beside it going back. Both showed the ridges and the nick from John’s boots.
The prints going back to John’s cottage were much deeper. Reed checked several neighbouring patches along the path: the same difference continued along the two trails. The lines did not overlap, and neither had been walked over again.
The two trails had been made in the same kind of soft, level snow. The night had stayed cold and calm. There had been no new snowfall, thaw or fresh hard crust between the two crossings to account for the difference.
Around the other side of the grounds, cars had pressed the snow on the main road into a hard surface. People could walk along that packed road without leaving clear boot impressions like those on the soft path.
Puz’s judgement
“They are John’s boot marks in both directions,” Carter said. “So he must have walked home.”
Puz looked at Carter. “No. John did not walk back to his cottage. You carried him.” Reed asked Carter to stay while the investigation continued. Why had Puz reached that conclusion, and which detail in the footprints explained it?